One last push against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline

Dear Eldy,In about 90 days the Joint Review Panel will make a decision on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. Its recommendation goes to Prime Minister Stephen Harper – and he has made his support for tar sands oil pipelines well known. But the risk to our coast could not be more black and white: the Enbridge pipeline threatens our water, our wildlife, our economy – our entire way of life. And Premier Christy Clark has the ability to stop this nightmare before it becomes reality.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill killed many species and severely impacted the health and jobs of local people. In the decades since then the effects of the spill have been ongoing. Take, for example, the beautiful and iconic orcas – or “killer whales” – that call our coast home. The fate of one genetically distinct pod of orcas, the AT1 pod, serves as a reminder of what is really at stake. Following the Valdez disaster, nine of the 22 members of the AT1 pod died from oil ingestion and since then no new calves have been born. Because of the oil spill, the unique songs of the AT1 pod may never be heard again.1

But get this. Over the past few months, Enbridge has cranked up its lobbying and advertising2, trying to use the imagery of orcas – a species that the Northern Gateway project would endanger – to charm us into supporting its toxic pipeline.

This is clearly an issue as black and white as the colours on our iconic orcas. No amount of spin by Enbridge could change the fact that just one spill of toxic tar sands oil would change our province forever. And Premier Clark knows the risks. That’s why in her official written submission to the Joint Review Panel on behalf of the Province of BC she said it should reject the Northern Gateway pipeline.